EDITORIAL

Dear readers,

As you know, PIARC is committed to meeting its members' expectations and most of our activities are based on our 22 Committees and Task Forces. Their terms of reference are defined through a painstaking process and are set out in the Association's four-year strategic plan. This guarantees that the needs of our 121 member countries are identified, taken into account and prioritised. It also ensures that the mandate given to the Committees and Task Forces is determined in sufficient detail to structure the work of over 1,000 international experts.

In addition, the Association has a quick-response mechanism allowing current affairs subjects to be processed within short lead times as soon as they are of interest to sufficient numbers of members. These are called "special projects". They are outsourced to external consultancy firms for budgets which remain moderate, in order to provide clarification on a given topic within just six months, and should provide clarification within just six months. This system therefore requires us to be able to identify emerging topics of interest, and also to master the constraints of the mechanism. It is coordinated in the name of the PIARC Executive Committee by Mr Richard Charpentier (Canada-Québec) who is also the Vice-President of our Strategic Planning Commission.

These "special projects" were highlighted at the recent PIARC statutory meetings in Bonn. After projects focusing on the Road Asset Management and the Conceptual framework for climate change adaptation, the two projects currently being completed were presented: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Drones) and Infrastructures Unpredicted Failures. These two reports will shortly be available on www.piarc.org. Moreover, the principle of two new projects has been adopted. Their specifications will be finalised shortly and calls for tenders will be published at the start of next year for reports at the end of 2018. One Special Project will cover the electric roads and the other the contribution of road transport in favour of sustainable economic development.

Finally remember that you can now follow these developments and the Association's activities on Twitter! Our account is @PIARC_roads and the most tweeted keyword is #PIARC. This supplements our communication tools, alongside the website piarc.org, our mailing campaigns, seminars and other events in which the Association participates.

Sincerely,

Patrick Malléjacq

Patrick Malléjacq

(Secretary General)

IN BRIEF

The city of Bonn (Germany) hosted the 2017 statutory meetings of the World Road Association from 23 to 28 October: the Association Council meeting, the Executive Committee, the National Committees Assembly, the Strategic Planning Commission and the Communication Commission. Chaired by Claude van Rooten, President...

Already present on the social network LinkedIn, the World Road Association's page has more than 1,000 fans; it is now possible to follow the PIARC news on Twitter via its account @PIARC_Roads. Join now and keep an eye on all the latest news of the Association on social networks!

During the PIARC Council meeting, the members were also able to confirm the very dynamic progress of preparations for the upcoming International Winter Road Congress, which will take place in Gdańsk (Poland) from 20 to 23 February 2018, and the next World Road Congress, due to be held in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), from 6 to 10 October 2019.

Finally, the Council accepted the application of the city of Calgary (Canada) to organise the XVIth International Winter Road Congress in February 2022.

Robin Sébille, Deputy General Secretary, went to the German pavilion at COP 23 to present the PIARC LC2RT (Low Carbon Road & Road Transport Initiative) which unites the Association's various actions aiming to adapt the road sector to climate change (monitoring of the implementation of the 2015 framework document, activities on the strategic theme E, special 2018 project on the electric road), etc.

NEWS OF OUR NETWORK

Claude Van Rooten, President of PIARC, participated at the International Congress on autonomous and connected driving ("Moving people and freight in the future").Jointly organized by the Italian National Committee of PIARC and Anas S.p.A., the congress represented an opportunity to share and focus on smart cars, smart roads, smart safety and smart freight.

The PIARC technical director presents the Association's work on road safety in Madrid

Madrid (Spain), November 14-15th, 2017

The "Asociación Técnica de Carreteras" (ATC), the national PIARC committee in Spain, successfully organised the 7th Road Safety Days in Toledo in Spain on 14 and 15 November 2017. Our technical director Miguel Caso Flórez presented the Road Safety manual in line with the Association, generating considerable interest among the almost 200 participants from the public and private sectors. Road safety remains a priority for the Spanish road sector, as despite statistics placing Spain among the 5 best countries in terms of road safety, every victim of a traffic accident is one too many.

Ms. Claudine Tremblay has been appointed as PIARC Technical Advisor following the Strategic Theme D since November 2017.

Claudine has a long story of cooperation with PIARC since 2003. She was part of the Organizing Committee of the International Winter Road Congress in Quebec 2010, she has been PIARC Council member several years and she is currently the Secretary General of PIARC National Committee in Canada-Quebec. She also works as the senior advisor to the First Delegate of Canada-Quebec and the current Vice-Chair of the PIARC Strategic Planning Commission.

As part of this meeting, a Member of the Scottish Parliament and Minister for Transport, Mr Humza Yousaf, attended the meeting. He was keenly interested to understand the work of the committee, particularly in reference to air quality, given the Government's interest in introducing low emission zones (LEZs). The TC also had the opportunity to meet with the ITS:UK Special Environment Interest Group.

The Seminar will be held in Madrid on 19 - 20 April 2018. It will focus on the evolution of design, construction and earthworks maintenance. The seminar will be held in English and Spanish, with simultaneous translation available.

TECHNICAL REPORTS 2012 - 2015

Climate change has now become a global issue of concern and it is for this reason that PIARC has incorporated it into the strategic themes and technical committees for the term 2012-2015. Higher levels of carbon dioxide as part of greenhouse gas emissions are being released resulting in heat being trapped [...]

Unplanned communities create hazards for road users of all types generating unsafe conditions for motorists on the roadway and significant dangers for pedestrians, bicyclists and residents alongside or adjacent to the road [...]

This report has tried to summarize the knowledge of Climate Change Considerations in Winter Operations. The first step to this project was to source relevant literature on climate change and winter maintenance and sort it into six categories; Level of service for road owners, Maintenance of roads[...]